BLAME! Master Edition 6

BLAME! MASTER EDITION #6

by Tsutomu Nihei (Writer)

En un futuro dominado por la tecnología, los humanos representan una raza en peligro de extinción. La devastación asola los inmensos parajes cubiertos de metal. Nunca se sabe con certeza qué hay en niveles superiores y sólo se oyen rumores al respecto.

Genres: Manga, Comics, Science Fiction, Cyberpunk, Graphic Novels, Horror, Fiction

338 pages, Paperback

First published June 23, 2015

About the author

See also 弐瓶 勉.

Tsutomu Nihei (弐瓶 勉 Nihei Tsutomu, born 1971) is a Japanese manga artist. His cyberpunk-influenced artwork has gained a strong cult following. He has a relatively large community of fans in Germany where his manga Blame!, NOiSE and Biomega were published by Ehapa. Blame! was also published in France and Spain by Glénat, in the US by Tokyopop and in Italy by Panini Comics.

At first he studied architecture and later it is shown up in his manga works with drawing huge structures. This became one of his general theme that makes his manga unique. His works are usually in black and white. He is also an avid fan of the video game series Halo, as he mentions in his commentary section in the Halo Graphic Novel.

Taken from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsutomu_...

Reviews

[Alice Oseman]

I reeeally loved this series. Did have to keep re-reading the Wikipedia to make sure I understood what was happening, but... the VIBES. The vibes. Every page instantly transports you to a cavernous metallic expanse. Took me to another place even when I had no idea what was going on... maybe that added to the feeling? Sort of wish I had a better understanding of the lore, but maybe more understanding would ruin the liminal effect of the emptiness and the endless, seemingly pointless journey of Kyrii.

How many times did he lose his arm? It felt like a lot.

I could also launch into a queer interpretation of the ending but-

[Nate D]

So I persevered. I made it through the ever-building/ever-ruined spaces of Nihei's endless city. To find what? Despite what others may have said, there is a pretty clear plot trajectory to this, and it does make a certain sense along its own peculiar logic. That said, I also see why it may be unsatisfying. At its core it's an unsatisfying project. Over the course of these couple-thousand pages of empty architectures punctuated with violence and destruction, the plot surges, characters emerge, the threads seem on the verge of gathering, only to fall away again and again. This isn't a failure, and if it may partially result from an incomplete vision, it isn't self-inconsistant. Blame! is a work concerned with the horror of the infinite, uncaring, and largely haphazard universe, within which single actors and their desires are utterly lost with little ability to alter unstoppable mass trajectories. That two characters, at least, are able to struggle on across all these pages in the face of futility is less a ray of hope than the bare necessity of keeping the reader vaguely attached to the material. But there is an inherent fascination to the material. I'd prefer more contemplation to action in this sort of thing, honestly, but even the most explosive sequences are eventually overtaken by a deep fatigue and overarching sadness, seemingly base traits of an existence that offers little in the way of purpose besides ghostly, possibly unreal goals that float beyond reach. Like Beckett characters with inexplicably reality-piercing armaments we can't go on, yet we go on.

[Urbon Adamsson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nihei's artwork is nothing short of breathtaking. I feel incredibly fortunate to have completed this series in its entirety. It showcases some of the finest art I've ever encountered, not just in manga but in comic books as a whole.

The story concludes as it began: enigmatic, abstract, and elusive. Yet, that's part of its charm. This series isn’t about a straightforward narrative—it’s about immersing yourself in a colossal, metallic world brought vividly to life by Nihei’s extraordinary vision.

For fans of sci-fi, this is an absolute must-read.

With this volume, a truly remarkable series comes to a close.

[Ozan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Let me tell you something first, i couldn't survive in the Blame! world like 15 minutes... They invented incredible things, it was a Cyberpunk manga but they couldn't invent railings for some reason. There were these mega structures of an endless city which was made out of parts called stratas and there wasn't one single railing at the side of the stairs or bridges in anywhere... HA HA ! i would definetly fall... HA HA !

Kidding asside it was an incredible manga... Mangaka prefered to tell the story mostly by art, there wasn't much dialogue so it was a very fast read. The action was very well executed, the amount of it was so perfect. I couln't guess if the manga would end good or bad right away... That was the feeling a quality indy book would give to you. Just amazing. The main character Kyrii was in the search of a something called Net Terminal Gene, the persons who had the Net Terminal Gene could axcess to the netsphere and put everything back to normal. The whole city of mega structure of stratas was in chaos and only the human with Net Terminal Gene could put a stop to this. There were beings called Silicon Life (they were kind of like cyborgs) who thrived on this chaos so they didn't want anyone to find the human with Net Terminal Gene, so they were killing all the humans that they could find... And There were safeguards, probably a security mechanism went wrong which was killing all the humans without Net Terminal Gene as well... Kyrii and later on an ally Cibo fought against them to protect the humans while they were searching for the Human or Humans with the Net Terminal Gene.

It was uncertain that how long Kyrii was on a quest to find the human with The Net Terminal Gene. He was very determant, iron willed, strong silent type. My favoriet type of character. They never complain and don't think anything other then the job or quest at hand. Kyrii's journey was kind of melencolic one because of the empty vast space he dwelled in... He was so little, lonely and insignifacant in The Vast Spaces and around gigantic structures... And in the end he was alone... still trying to achive the quest... :/ that was so sad... :/ don't get me wrong, it was a well done end but a bit confusing. I also liked that many things left unclear, i'm glad that i don't have encyclopedic information about everything in the end. I prefer this mystery on many things about the world of Blame!, the story is more paralel with the real life in an interesting way like this.

The art was raw and sketchy. It was suiting about a world which has many unknown things about.

[Christian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Artistically, this was the best book, and I loved the architecture designs, which were perhaps better here than in the previous installments.

Annnnnd that's it. Other than Kyrill and Cibo, I didn't know who any of the characters were and didn't understand what they were up to; I comprehend even less what is even happening, and that shoddy bit of monologue in the Nightmare Before Christmas section didn't help at all; the action scenes were largely uninterpretable (as usual), and honestly I just felt burned out trying to decipher this mess.

For all the effort the creators went to in keeping the plot vague, they may as well have eschewed dialogue altogether and kept it abstract and artistic. At least I could have just enjoyed the view without the accumulating frustrations.

The two stars I gave this were for the art and designs only. Nothing else landed for me and I won't be recommending this to anyone in the future.

[S. Zahler · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tsutomu Nihei's beautifully drawn and interestingly conceived series Blame! landed poorly for me, squarely where I was hoping it would not land...
I enjoy ambiguous narratives (Lynch's Lost Highway is an all time favorite, and I like Panos, Jodorowsky, and Yorgos movies quite a bit), and I enjoy interesting science fiction (especially hard stuff like Greg Egan and Stephen Baxter), but from the third (Master Edition) volume of Blame! onward, I was concerned that rather than resolve the interesting elements put into play, Nihei would simply repeat what he had done earlier.

Beautifully drawn, Blame! is:
1. Characters explore excellent, atmospheric, and arterial environments;
2. Protagonists fight H.R. Geiger/Bubblegum Crisis mechs (mostly but not always comprehensibly);
3. With little exposition or unclear exposition, "people" toss around odd tech allusions

If the piece had far less technobabble and was akin to something like Daft Punk's Electroma, I could have enjoyed this as an abstruse, visually lush cyberpunk travelogue, but the introduction of so many plot elements hampered my ability to relish the action and environments on a simpler/more emotional level because my brain was so tied up with all of the data and enigmas, trying to make some sense of things.
I'm sure some understood this series better than I did, but considering that some of the action itself is unclear, I'm not certain how much of this was supposed to be "ambiguous" or just wound up that way...possibly to make it seem deeper or to cover up haphazard narrative that stitches battles together.

So in the end, Nihei's insistence on continually introducing new plot ideas and concepts and having almost incessant action rather than resolving anything led me to feel the story was at its best, most engrossing, most atmospheric, most intelligible and--in many ways--most complete when I had only read the first book, possibly the first two, rather than all six, which expanded, complicated, and repeated the experience of the first two less enjoyably and less clearly, again and again.

For this reason, I preferred the far shorter (and still narratively challenging) Abara by this incredible illustrator and designer.

Update:
I had hoped to have better luck with BioMega, but didn't. Again, I enjoyed the first third and found that the story grew increasingly confusing (both in terms of plot and the scratchy artwork during the action sequences) as things progressed.

Although I should've already learned my lesson regarding Nihei, I am reading Aposimz and hope that it coheres better than the aforementioned, but I have doubts...

[Tarot · Rating 3 out of 5]

3/5 stars ~

0/1 for plot
0/1 for characters and character development
1/1 for art
1/1 for pace
1/1 for world-building

The final volume of Blame! doesn't offer as much of an explanation as I'd like, but overall it was a crazy ride I would do all over again. Below is an explanation of what happens, so beware of spoilers.

I don't know how or why is Sanakin is an agent of the Administration now because she was a Safeguard and she died in Toha Heavy Industries. I don't know why the Builder protecting Cibo says not to trust the Administration, except that the Builders are under Safeguard control just like the City itself. And I still don't know what the infection mentioned since the beginning of the story is or how it came to be; I'm guessing it was created by the Safeguard purely to wipe out the Net Terminal Gene, but I don't know why they wouldn't just make a contagion to wipe out all of humanity to begin with.

What I do know is that Cibo became a Level 9 Safeguard when she gained temporary access to the Netsphere while going after Davine Lu. I can only assume she became a Safeguard because the Safeguards within the Netsphere infected her somehow. Now, the Administration wants Cibo even though she's a Safeguard because of sphere that appeared in her womb when she transformed holds the savior of the City.

Buuut the sphere is Cibo and Sanakin's baby?! What???

Anyway, Sanakin and Cibo perish, but Kyrii is able to save the sphere. Cibo ends up in Backup World, while Kyrii tries to find a safe place for the child to be born. The final chapter shows Kyrii getting drained into some sort of sewer with the first signs of plants in the series. The sphere glows, and the last page shows Kyrii protecting a child, meaning the savior was born.

Now the big question remains: where the f are the net terminal genes that started this whole story? It was never confirmed that the human genome given to Kyrii and Cibo contained any, and it certainly is never confirmed that sphere baby has it. Are we to assume that because Cibo had access to the Netsphere when her belly sphere formed, it somehow has it? And why does it say the sphere was conceived from two women when Sanakin is the only other woman to interact with Cibo, but AFTER the sphere appears on her?

As for Kyrii, I'm still confused as to what he actually is. It's revealed early on that he's a Safeguard, but many people and creatures comment that he's human. I don't see how he can be both because none of the other Safeguards are human. He has some sort of electronics and plastics in him, and yet he tells the tall people he can't grow anymore because he's a grown man, and yet he can't freaking die. And it's still never explained where he came from, or why he's the only Safeguard working against all other Safeguards to help humans and the Administration.

I wish there was more story. I also wish the prequel, Noise, was included in the final volume. But I liked the oversize volumes with the inclusion of a few pages of color in each.

[Edgar Cotes Argelich · Rating 5 out of 5]

Acabada aquesta darrera entrega cal confirmar que Blame és una obra mestra del manga i també de la ciència-ficció, que et fascina des del minut u fins al final amb els seus paisatges de megaconstruccions i ciberpunk, i que aconsegueix sumar-hi una història complexa que reflexiona sobre els límits de l’ésser humà i la transcendència com a espècie.

[Mangrii · Rating 3 out of 5]

Insatisfactorio. Ese es el sentimiento general que tengo con Blame!.

La historia de Nihei ha sido un viaje. El viaje de Killy en busca de los genes de conexión por los interiores de una megaestructura infinita, construida y mantenida por inteligencias artificiales conectadas a los humanos por la red genética. Algo acabó con ese gen. Killy solo busca restaurar el control, mientras esas inteligencias tratan una y otra vez, durante años, siglos o milenios de que nunca vuelva a suceder.

Pero el resultado es frustrante. Desde el tercer tomo Nihei se dedica a recorrer un camino siempre ascendente repleto de violencia y destrucción que nunca acaba de resolver los elementos más interesantes. Una espiral de tramas y tramas, de personajes y personajes que se agolpan viñeta a viñeta sin más sentido que el de continuar avanzando.

Y quizá, como tal, haya que tomar Blame!. Como el viaje en la vida que todos emprendemos y parece nunca terminar. Ese camino que nos impela a crecer, a ser mejores, a ser trascendentes en un caos humano. No lo sé, quizás es mi cerebro racional intentando dar sentido a un viaje visual con el que Nihei solo quería hacerme disfrutar. Un camino lleno de incesantes ideas, fascinantes atmósferas, espectaculares batalles e intrincadas superficies.

[MarinaLawliett · Rating 3 out of 5]

No me he enterado de nada. El dibujo es una maravilla y las páginas a color wow, pero eso, una neurona tengo y no me ha ayudado a entender nada, so~

Gracias Alberto por dejarme todos los tomos, ily no me odies <3

[Connie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read a digital copy of this book.

Okay.

You know, if someone was to hold me at gun point and ask me to explain to them the plot of this series, I'm not sure I could do it. Have I enjoyed my journey with Kyrii and Cibo throughout this never ending sprawl of a city in search for the human with the Net Terminal Gene? Sure. The art has been fantastic, gritty, intense and dark. Three of my favourite adjectives. However, I don't actually think I've understood anything. Sanakan makes her come back in this book, she's maybe not the villain I thought she was. Cibo is once again dead or dying. Kyrii shoots some Silicon Life with his gravity gun thing. But I don't feel like I understand the story or the plot any more than I did when I started the series, despite this being the finale. I would read more from this author, but I kind of feel like this book was really vague. I just don't know what has happened.

[Gabriel Galletta · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've come to the conclusion that this series should be read purely for its visual qualities, rather than for its story and characters. The series' story doesn't make much sense to me, but it was visually interesting.

[Cathy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I made it through this endless rambling mess. Ok, yes, some cool artwork. Empty, architectural landscapes. Indecipherable fights. Less and less plot after Volume #2.

As for the ending... You have got to be kidding me. Argh. I get it, I can see the red thread in retrospect. I wish the story had been told more coherently. So much pointless filler. Pretty to look at was not enough for me. I would have preferred a well told plot to go with it. If I had stopped after the first two volumes, it would probably have been a more satisfying experience.

[Bingus Boingus · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have no idea what was going on, but it looked pretty so who cares

[Jason Dark · Rating 5 out of 5]

This review is for the series, volumes 1-6.

The entirety of this manga has been an absolutely incredible journey. This series is an exceptional example of 'neo-noir distant future mega-structure gothic cyberpunk'. Such a niche genre, that it scarcely exists. This manga series is an exceptional example of each constituent genre just mentioned, or any combination of them.

Time and space both work in large scales. The main character, for example, walks up a spiral staircase that's 1,860 miles tall, taking him over three years to walk. This three year period happening only over several pages. The space this series takes place in is massive as one 'room' is explained in volume 6 at having an average diameter of 88,800 miles. Making a single space larger than the planet Jupiter.

Regernerative technology and weaponry is also incredibly advanced, such as the gravitational beam emitter carried by the main character in the form of a handgun. It's fairly evident that "The City", the location the series takes place, is a Dyson Sphere. It's hinted by the author that the total space occupied by The City is 994,200,000 miles in diameter. Meaning, from the sun to Jupiter's orbit.

The future this takes place in is beyond any science fiction I've ever encountered, possibly millions of years in the future. The personification of network safeguards and other entities is so cleverly done. And all with dark gothic and cyberpunk tones.

Each of these volumes deserves a 5 star rating. If I was pressed, I'd say the 5th volume was the weakest, but the differences are marginal. So I suppose the final rating is thus:

1, 2, 6 --5.0
3, 4 --4.99
5 --4.98


This was hands down the best manga I've ever read. I will immediately be exploring more work by Tsutomu Nihei.

[Executionereniak · Rating 5 out of 5]

So, after experiencing the whole series, the best way to try to review the incomprehensible thing would be to try to imagine being in a perpetual maniacal slumber interspersed with these gnawing depressive schizophrenic visions of depersonalized sadness where you know you should feel gloomy sorrow but instead you just gaze around, listening stupidly to the sound of six-legged children made of silicon smacking on the ground to the death from infinite blackest heights, picking up the worms emerging from their split skulls to examine closely only to discard them coldly and stomp the remaining living life out of them, without second thought. And walking (or rather, climbing) on. And on and on and on. And on. Yep, that about sums it up.

[Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read all 6 big ass volumes of this series and very much enjoyed myself, but please do not ask me what happened. I don't know. But also who cares. Nihei the incomprehensible GOAT.

Side note: There's a shot early on in this volume that looks very similar to a shot in Carol Reed's The Third Man. Made me wonder if Nihei was at all inspired by the sewer chase scene from that same movie when constructing the world of Blame.

[Rickard Dahlgren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy cow! 🤩

[DerKrichi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eine unglaublich bildgewaltige Grapghic Novel, die in einer Post Apokalypse spielt, dessen Ausmaße man sich nur schwer vorstellen kann, auch wenn die Relationen während des Geschichtsverlaufs immer deutlicher werden.
Da es die erste richtige Graphic Novel war, die ich "gelesen" habe, wusste ich erst nicht, worauf ich mich genau einstellen muss.
Am Ende stellt sich aber heraus, das es nicht viel zu lesen gab, sondern die Geschichte mal mehr, mal weniger deutlich durch Bildsprache ausgeführt wird, welche im Fall von Blame! äußerst beeindruckend, aber auch sehr düster und bedrückend ist.
Dialoge, die spärlich gesät sind, helfen auch hier mal mehr, mal weniger, um das Gesamtbild zu erkennen.
Doch trotz der immer wieder auftretenden "Hä?" Momente setzt sich über die Zeit das Bild einer tragischen und Actionreichen Geschichte zusammen.

Trotz der Emotionalenflaute bei den Hauptcharakteren wachsen einem diese doch über kurz oder lang ans Herz und man fühlt mit Ihnen, falls sie einen Rückschlag erleiden oder auch wenn sie einer scheinbar ausweglosen Situation entkommen.

Als kurzes Resümee würde ich sagen, das man beim ersten Mal lesen, sehr zügig durch die einzelnen Bände durchkommt, da nicht viel gesprochen oder erklärt wird, aber ich denke, ein zweites oder drittes Mal lesen kann in diesem Fall nicht schaden, um mit den gesamten Informationen, die man hat, einen anderen Blick auf die Dinge zu bekommen, die passieren.

[Ami 乁⁠ ⁠˘⁠ ⁠o⁠ ⁠˘⁠ ⁠ㄏ (written by Jane Austen) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ (3 stars)

Full manga rating: 3.7 stars

Full manga review 👇🏽

When they said Japan has some of the weirdest works of literature, they weren't kidding. Blame! (pronounced as Blam) is an embodiment of just such weirdness.

On the surface, it's a dystopian, cyberpunk sci-fi about a man named Kyrii searching for the net terminal gene through the endless maze of 'the city' but underneath this, we have a very complicated, often incomprehensible story with magnificent art and a lot of gory horror.

As most reviewers of this manga have said, this is a very hard manga to review because the plot is very difficult to completely grasp. As a matter of fact, I would say this manga has less plot and more themes (and vibes) and so a lot of it is left to reader interpretation, with a few hints from the mangaka. Up till the end, I wasn't quite sure what was happening because whenever I thought I had it figured out, something new was put into the equation. And while I still enjoyed the manga (mostly due to the art and due to vague feeling of loneliness spread throughout) I don't think it's most people's cup of tea.

Anyway, I don't really have much to say about this except don't read it if you can't handle extremely (and I mean the extremely) vague and interpretive plots (and absolutely no character development).

Bottom line: Vague as it gets with the best lonely vibes.

[Álvaro González · Rating 3 out of 5]

Creo que para saber realmente dónde te metes al leer BLAME! te tienen que decir lo siguiente: no te esperes coherencia ni trama.

No me vale un "es difícil de entender" o "deja mucho a la imaginación". No. Es una obra que no busca crear una historia. Y estaría bien de no ser porque en los primeros tomos (especialmente el segundo) sí vemos más coherencia y evolución, aunque haya mucho misterio. Pero luego, a partir del cuarto y especialmente el quinto, ya son escenas en las que ocurren muchas cosas porque sí. Situaciones MUY drásticas que de repente ya no lo son a la viñeta siguiente, y te las tienes que creer.

BLAME! es un viaje para disfrutar del dibujo y la ambientación, que son sublimes. De explorar conceptos relacionados con el biopunk, la ciencia ficción, la oscuridad... Pero ya. Lo considero más cercano a un libro de arte que a algo narrativo.

[Elvis García · Rating 4 out of 5]

Llegamos al final de este viaje...

Artísticamente no decepciona desde el primer tomo. Pero en sí es un viaje puramente visual con conceptos Cyberpunk y Biotecnológicos, no te encontrarás con una historia bien construida, y el desarrollo de personaje es nulo (por mas que ame a Cibo), escena de acción tras escena de acción. Y en la mayoría de los casos no se entiende que está sucediendo. Los últimos 3 tomos los sentí repetitivos, y quiso extender una historia que en los primeros 3 sentaba buenas bases, pero otra vez, storytellers que tienen todo para explotar su mundo y fallan en el proceso.

Lo siento más como un recopilatorio de arte, algo entretenido para inspirarte o salir de un bloqueo lector, demasiadas imágenes brutales pero nula esencia en la historia.

En cuanto al final, me gustó la parte de Cibo, pero la parte de Killy me dejó insatisfecho.

[Zachary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Blame! (inexplicably named - I assume it just sounds cool and maybe explosive?) improves dramatically as the series progresses, and it starts off pretty good. Volume 6 is probably the best graphic novel I've ever seen. High praise - inherently subjective - still, though - why? Because the story is in the art, and more important than the story is the feeling, of an isolated detective in a vast and cold city, searching for something, searching forever... It's like a distillation of what's most interesting about noir, main-lined.

As in cinema, the feeling is more important than the plot, though you need plot. The vast, mad, metastasized city is, I think, the primary character - I believe Nihei trained as an architect - it shows.

The city has a soul, the Authority, that's all but helpless to recover the corrupt city that was once its charge - Killy is its agent, with such few gifts as it can give. He's been searching for thousands of years - there are suggestions that the city has grown larger than solar system (where the matter came from I don't know!)

[vinc · Rating 4 out of 5]

ja naprawdę lubię zakończenia otwarte ale tutaj by się cos jeszcze przydało. musiałam je dzisiaj przeczytać bo obiechalam pani od chemii że jej jutro oddam, prawdopodobnie gdyby był to inny dzień bardziej by trafiło. nie zmienia to jednak faktu iż jest to jedna z lepszych serii mang jakie wyszły.

[Analía · Rating 4 out of 5]

oye al final si me gusto la historia no entendí mucho sobre ella pero al menos pude (creo) entender lo más importante: Al final Killy logró terminar la Misión y al parecer nació lo que sea que tenía que nacer?? nideah

[Lars Olav Tungesvik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Little to complicated, but an great read

[Jenny · Rating 2 out of 5]

That's how it ends?????? HUH?

[Stormlord · Rating 3 out of 5]

La historia comienza muy bien y se mantiene bien, pero al llegar a este último número decae mucho y deja un final demasiado abierto para lo que esperaba

[El_Commutador · Rating 2 out of 5]

La gallina.

[Annarella · Rating 5 out of 5]

pa la cagá papito